World Environment Day: It’s time to reaffirm our commitment to sustainability

Climate change is a serious threat to our planet, people, and economy. Land degradation costs ~2.5% of India’s GDP a year; 70% of our water is contaminated and India is the 4th largest emitter of greenhouse gas after China, the European Union and USA.

The enormity of this challenge underpins the need for long-term sustainability actions and reinforces our responsibility to pivot the next decade to deliver on India’s sustainability goals for 2030:

•  To reduce carbon emissions intensity of GDP by 33-35% from the 2005 level
•   Enhance non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity to 40% and
•  Achieve 175 GW capacity of renewable energy by the end of 2022 and expand to 450 GW by 2030

Sustainability is more important than ever before: The business case for sustainability is growing. Sustainable practices create value and profitability for organizations and their stakeholders by maximizing efficiency, enhancing product competitiveness, and increasing brand value.  

Pandemic underlines the need for sustainability: It has highlighted the critical need for sustainability, as businesses and consumers increasingly reinforce their commitment to environment conservation. In a BCG study, 90% of consumer respondents said they were equally or more concerned about environmental issues after the COVID-19 outbreak and 95% believed their personal actions will help reduce unsustainable waste, tackle climate change and protect biodiversity. There are conscious efforts to alter lifestyle to optimize energy, minimize water usage or cut down on environment-unfriendly products.

Sustainability fuels disruptive products and solutions: Studies show that sustainability spurs product innovation through minimized use of resources. While sustainable products and increased sales are correlated, the trend indicates that consumers would prefer to directly or indirectly associate with brands dedicated to social and environmental sustainability, and are likely to spend more on products from these brands.

Demand for sustainable products on the rise: As per a study, quoted in an HBR Online article, 73% of global consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to lessen their negative impact on the environment. Sustainable product sales have grown by nearly 20% since 2014.

Sustainability boosts employer brand: Sustainability is increasingly becoming a key attribute of employability as millennials and Gen Z are seeking greater purpose in their work. An organization’s social and environmental commitment has become a deciding factor for them while choosing an employer.

Intel India’s commitment to sustainability goals

Sustainability is a key pillar of Intel’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, called RISE. It focuses on accelerating the adoption of responsible, inclusive, and sustainable practices in our operations and supply chain, and across the technology industry and society. These are enabled through our technology and the expertise and passion of our employees.

Under RISE, our sustainability goals for 2030 include:

? Net positive water use ? 100% renewable power ? Zero total waste to landfill

With over two decades journey of driving innovation, technology adoption, and social impact in the country, Intel India is deeply committed to sustainability. It has four focus areas: energy efficiency, community impact, IT infrastructure & products, and supply chain.

Energy efficiency: Sustainable practices throughout our operations help us minimize cost and maximize efficiency. For example, all Intel India buildings are fitted with sensors to track and optimize temperature, lighting, energy consumption, and occupancy, leading to higher energy conservation.

A few years ago, Intel was the first organization to set up a solid oxide fuel cell power generation system in India. Installed at our Bengaluru campus, the unit generates 4 MW of power annually and meets ~70% of the power needs of Intel India buildings, labs, and data centers.

Community impact: Our employees volunteer their time and expertise to make a positive impact in communities through activities such as cleaning public spaces, lake rejuvenation, and tree planting.

Water conservation: Our onsite water management practices allow us to recycle ~90 million liters of water annually. Intel in collaboration with NGOs CLEAN International and Say Trees has rejuvenated two lakes in Bengaluru—Nanjapura and Dyavasandra. The revival of these lakes is expected to restore ~100 million gallons of water each year.

First-of-its-kind sustainability lab across Intel: Reinforcing Intel’s commitment to advance carbon-neutral computing, we have recently set up a Sustainability Lab at our Bengaluru campus. The first-of-its-kind lab across Intel aims to accelerate sustainability in product architecture and engineering through various facets such as mineral sourcing, design, manufacturing, software, hardware, form factor and more. The lab focuses on enhancing repairability, reliability, and usability of products and their components in collaboration with our customers, suppliers and partners.

As sustainability continues to be a cornerstone of Intel India, we recognize the need to do much more and with greater urgency to enable India to meet the 2030 goals.

I believe collaboration between the industry, government, academia, NGOs, and society is a powerful way to stimulate collective action towards accelerating environmental and social impact. Sustainability is a long-term commitment. Together we can achieve it faster.